Albert Jay Nock was writing about a THEORY–not a history–of Education in the United States, elaborating on the consequences of excessive and irresponsible egalitarianism on the dissemination of formal instruction and knowledge. His theory was that the effects of runaway egalitarianism were deleterious and corrupting, both to the institutions who ‘taught’, and to the students who “learned” the material.

Having acknowledged this, it was very unfortunate that an otherwise scholarly and erudite man such as Nock dismally failed to separate fact from fiction in his account of contemporary education as it seem to be practiced at Columbia University at the time. Even as a matter of courtesy and integrity, a gentleman like Nock owed his readers that much!

He would have done a lot more for his readers, and perhaps even for education, if he cited what was supposedly happening at Columbia as a warning of where they were headed! Whatever the falsehoods or inaccuracies cited in Prof. Barzun’s review, there is little doubt that today the pathetic mess of vocationalism, political correctness, and all round mediocrity and careerism certainly describes today’s school or college very well!

PEACE AND FREEDOM!!
David K. Meller